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NIH Study Describes New Method for Tracking T Cells in HIV Patients
NIAID researchers have identified a novel method for tracking the lifespan of CD4+ T cells in people infected with HIV. T cells are critical for immune defense and are a primary target of HIV. The study appears in the February 3, 2014, online issue of AIDS.
In the study, researchers used a unique, replication-incompetent (defective) form of HIV identified in a patient. Like a barcode, this “provirus” marked the originally infected T cell and its progeny, enabling researchers to track its lineage over time. Surprisingly, they showed that this lineage can persist for at least 17 years, when it’s expected to only last weeks in a person. This work promises to improve the understanding of how immune cells survive HIV infection.
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